The Al-Kindî Ensemble,
Founded in 1983 by the French virtuoso of Arab zither (qânûn, or kanoun)) Julien Jâlal Eddine Weiss, resides in Aleppo, the capital of northern Syria and a stopping place on the Famous Silk Road. Al-Kindi is currently rated among the best formations devoted to classical Arab music, owing to the musical qualities displayed by its performers, and to the high standard of its work, steeped in the various musical traditions of the Near and Middle East.

The work of Mr Weiss has infused new blood into classical Arab music, and his faithful audience of connoisseurs is deeply appreciative of the encouragement and freedom given to the intuitive genius of the great soloist performers who compose the Ensemble: the Aleppo lute player Mohamed Qadri Dalal, the Damas ney (flute) player Ziad Kadi Amin, the Egyptian percussionist Adel Shams el-Din, and the Iraqi joza player Mohamed Gomar Al-Bawi. The qânun player and artistic director is Julien Jalal Eddine Weiss.

Along with singers from Syria and Iraq who are held in the highest esteem, this ensemble presents various repertoires of classical Arab Profan and Sacred Chant, enabling us to rediscover the riches and refinement of th art of these age-old cultures.

Sheikh Hamza Shâkkûr,
If properly lived out, Islam is a religion that preaches a message of clemency and mercy, beauty and harmony. The spiritual power emanating from Sheikh Hamza Shakkûr’s songs draws us into the mystical tradition of Islam embodied in Sufism.

Born in Damascus in 1947, he is a muqri (Koran reader) and a munshid (hymnodist). He is the disciple of Saïd Farhat and Tawfiq al-Munajjid; his task is to assure the continuity of the repertory proper to the Mawlawiya order. He is the choir master of the Munshiddin of the Great Mosque in Damascus and serves at official religious ceremonies in Syria, where he is immensely popular. Sheikh Hamza is an impressivley large, charismatic figure. His bass voice with its richly rounded timbre has made him one of the foremost perfomers of Arab vocal music. His art is uncompromisingly sober and introverted, to the exclusion of all affectation. He develops his improvisations within the framework of a centuries-old modal art, where orison blends with dance, and prayer with art.

The Islam he represents, far from being fundamentalist, is that of mysticism and happiness in the Faith. Replying to his soaring, powerful invocations to God, the musicians of the Al-Kindi Ensemble alternate subtle flourishes and arabesques with refined preludes, whilst the dervishes whirl on stage following an immemorial devotional ritual.

This is how proceeds this splendid and spell-binding event, this truly spiritual concert, this session of Sama’ – spiritual listening – where the only distraction from our state of bliss is the rustling of the dervishes’robes.

Hamza Shakkur was born in Damascus in 1944. At an early age he received a thorough training in Qur’anic recitation according to the Syrian tradition. His father was the muezzin at the local mosque who taught Shakkur the basics of spiritual recitation. At the age of ten, Shakkur assumed this role, thereby becoming his father’s successor.
Although he never learned to read music, he built up a repertoire comprising thousands of songs by learning lyrics and melodies by heart.
Among the mystics of the Sufi community he began studying the hymns of mystical love, a form of expression that is still highly respected in Arab society. Having studied the entire spiritual repertoire of Islam he was in much demand as a singer. He also made numerous recordings for the radio.
Later he became choirmaster of the Munshiddin (a group of individuals who recite the Qu’ran) at the Great Mosque of Damascus and performed at official religious ceremonies there, which made him immensely popular in Syria. The Great Mosque in Damascus is one of the most sacred sites in Islam.
Shakkur belonged to the traditional Damascus school of music. He felt a close bond with the Mevlevi Order, the community of “whirling dervishes”, and strove to preserve the continuity of their repertoire. This community is known for its whirling dance ritual, the epitome of Eastern mysticism. Dressed in wide swinging, bell-shaped white skirts and camel-coloured felt hats, they whirl to classical music and chanting.
In 1983 Shakkur and French musician Julien Weiss founded the Al Kindi ensemble, through which he succeeded in introducing this music to Europe and America.
The ensemble specialised in music from Arab-Andalusia and its repertoire covered both religious and secular themes. Its interpretations were heavily steeped in tradition. Weiss created an Arab musical ensemble with the Arab lute, oud, ney, kanun and a variety of rhythm instruments.
Shakkur selected songs with very diverse rhythms and melodies that impressively demonstrated his musical phrasing and improvisational talent. Particular emphasis was placed on preserving the unity of the sequence of songs and their musical mode as well as on playing songs in the traditional manner.
Sheikh Hamza Shakkur died in Damascus on 4 February 2009 at the age of 65.
The way in which Sheikh Hamza Shakkur could lull his listeners into a trance-like state by grace of his singing alone had to be seen to be believed. He possessed not only vocal talent, but also a powerful, sonorous and all-embracing voice capable of playing counterpart to an orchestra and filling an entire room.
His musical intuition was borne of a spiritual power that drew listeners into the mystical tradition of Sufism. His bass voice with its richly rounded timbre made him one of the most famous singers in the Arab world.

Aleppo has been an important center for Sufism since the thirteenth century, when the rulers of the Ayubid dynasty started building Sufi convents (khanaqa) and lodges (zawiya, pl. zawaiya) as part of their policy of fostering Sunni Islam against the threat of Ismaili Shi‘ism and the Crusaders. Aleppo was a cultural crossroad due its geographical location and its function as a trading center to where converged caravans coming from Anatolia, Iran, Mesopotamia and southern Syria. This cosmopolitan environment was reflected in the doctrinal and ritual traits of the Sufism practiced in Aleppo, which fused mystical trends developed in the Arab, Turkish and Persian religious and cultural contexts. Under the Ottoman Empire some Sufi tariqas where organized into centralized and hierarchical structures, putting the local zawiyas under the leadership of a shaykh al-mashaykh.

Nowadays despite the sociological and cultural challenges created by the industrialization and urbanization of the Syrian society as well as the rise of the ideas of secular nationalism and Islamic reform, Sufism in Syria retains its vitality and show clear signs of internal renewal and expansion. It is a fact that some zawiyas and Sufi practices declined or simply disappeared due the influence of secular ideas and Salafi Islam, which were hostile to Sufism. The nationalization of the awqaf (religious endowments) by the state also cut the economic basis of many Sufi activities. Nevertheless, many traditional zawiyas remain active in Aleppo and new Sufi zawiyas were created in the last decades, expanding the Sufi activities to the modern neighborhoods beyond the Old City. The permanence and expansion of Sufism in Aleppo shows that there is no inherent contradiction between Sufi practices or beliefs and modernity. Furthermore, the idea that Sufism is a marginal religious trend or simply “folk” Islam does not hold in Syria, where its rituals are part of the public expression of Islam and its doctrines attract followers from all strata of the Syrian society. Maybe the best example of the central place occupied by Sufism in Syrian Islam is shaykh Ahmad Kuftaru, who is both the official leader of Sunni Islam as the Grand Mufti of Syria and the supreme guide of a Sufi order as the shaykh of the tariqa Naqshbandiyya Kuftariyya.

The Zawiya of Shaykh Habbush:Shaykh Habboush inherited his mystical knowledge from his father who was also a Sufi shaykh. He was initiated in several mystical traditions, but the tariqa Qadiriyya and the tariqa Rifa‘iyya are the main sources of his mystical teachings and of the ritual structure of his dhikr. The Rifa‘i influence on shaykh Habboush can be seen on the presence in his zawiya of the iron skewers used in the performance of the darab al-shish. While he is entitled by his initiation in the Rifa‘iyya to perform the darab al-shish in his disciples, he usually prefers other forms of evaluation of their advance in the mystical path.

Every Wednesday night disciples and followers flock into his zawiya located in the traditional neighborhood of Bab al-Hadid in the Old City of Aleppo in order to take part in the dhikr. The dhikr starts with a sama‘ during which shaykh Habboush sings mystical poems about God’s love or the prophet together with other singers. These songs are meant to induce emotions in the audience in order to help the participants to achieve the mystical states that will bring them closer to God. Shaykh Habboush is versed in the art of the inshad (mystical singing) and his capacity of enrapturing the audience through the beauty of his singing, the power of his voice and the strength of his performance are well known in the Sufi circles of Aleppo. After the sama‘ all participants stand up and start the final part of the dhikr, engaging their selves into the performance of back-forth movements and utterance of “Allah” at the sound of drums and cymbals. Then, the dhikr ends and shaykh Habboush delivers a sermon. Sweets and tea are served to the participants as a token of the shaykh’s hospitality. After some small conversation and a last message from the shaykh the participants leave the zawiya for their homes sure of having renewed their links with the divine.